pea fence

one sweet pea fence is up. four of the twigs that i used for last year’s fence took root, so i now have trees growing in my cool weather garden. swiss chard is also in…ahead of the week + of rain expected. over-winter conditions must have been ideal for last year’s chard as a new crop is growing from last season’s planting.

with less than 12 weeks until D day, i’ve been trying to keep things simple. right. on top of the total house makeover that we seemed to have gotten ourselves into, Dad and Kevin started the processes of deconstructing an over-engineered play fort and moving it from a house in Bloom to our backyard. we didn’t exactly budget time for that project but, hey, it’s free. and it’s for the kids.

i’m sitting in my new office space on a chilly, but gloriously bright, monday afternoon. i’ll confess to enjoying a full can of heritage dr. pepper. (my apologies to you, fetal søren, but i will explain the momentary joys of real sugar and dr. peppery goodness when you arrive and can understand english.) the temperature in the office has surpassed the 60 mark, so i can now feel my fingers. love the high ceiling, loathe the electricity bill.

tomorrow i turn 39. i was hunting for randy stonehill’s song, “turning thirty” and someone commented that he was dead. i doubt this is true and hope it is not, but having recently discovered that gene eugene has been dead for almost 10 years…i have to face the fact that i HAVE been living under a rock for quite some time and know nothing of the outside world. :\

anyway, i love arbitrary milestones and i believe 39 is a good one. i’d like to slam smack into my 40’s having had a blast turning the light out on my 30’s.

I started off 2010 with a vivid dream about a business trip to Singapore. I was working out of secret offices in the Changi airport. I’m pretty sure we don’t have offices in the Changi airport, but you never know. I was also wearing a very short dress. Trust me, in a few months, I won’t be wearing very short anything…just a mu’umu’u to cover my cankles. Kevin was starting a new job on Monday (which he is) and the kids were @ Trinity full-time (which they will be).

We will have a very exciting 2010 with the addition of puff ball #3 but, hopefully, no exotic business travel. I think I was just jonesing to leave with Adina & Tim for Costa Rica today. I hope they have a wonderful time. In the warmth. Wearing very short clothes.

Among the oxen (like an ox I’m slow)
I see a glory in the stable grow
Which, with the ox’s dullness might at length
Give me an ox’s strength.

Among the asses (stubborn I as they)
I see my Saviour where I looked for hay;
So may my beastlike folly learn at least
The patience of a beast.

Among the sheep (I like a sheep have strayed)
I watch the manger where my Lord is laid;
Oh that my baa-ing nature would win thence
Some woolly innocence!

today starts the countdown to Christmas. once again we find ourselves trying to balance the experience between the sacred and the material. helping in all this is the fact that we are without tenants down south. so we have to notch up the creativity factor and look up from our cy-über shopping so as not to miss the simple joys of good health, crazy family and nature’s beauty.

we picked up simon’s new car seat yesterday. it’s extremely heavy, but it folds better for schlepping through the airport. i pulled into the driveway and simon didn’t want to get out. he wanted to go to jamaica in his new seat. when i explained that there isn’t a bridge that would let us drive there and that we needed to fly over the water, he asked to go straight to the airport. i hear ya, kid! me too!!

after a long trip, with varying degrees of vessel and weather-related stalls, it’s nice to see that dad, hank & dan are within mere inches of middle river. less than a palm’s length, really.

i’ve had to pull and burn most of the 20+ tomato plants that i started from seed. we had 2 red toms for lunch and i’ve harvested a few green ones to fry. i trimmed back the plants that are not too infected to see if they can hang on long enough to let their fruit ripen a bit more. i don’t want any spores to alight from my patch, so we’re smoking out the neighborhood with the burning plants.